What is Flash Storage?

Flash storage places digital information on solid state "flash" memory chips (i.e. What's found in a USB stick) rather than on spinning hard disks.

Flash storage definition

In the enterprise, flash storage refers to the use of solid-stage drives (SSDs) comprised of flash memory (i.e. "An All-Flash Array") for the mass storage of data or files. Flash storage offers an alternative to relying on hard disk drives (HDDs) or other media for storage. Recent advances in manufacturing have made it possible for all-flash storage arrays to hold more data per rack unit than is possible with HDDs – while performing faster input/output (I/O) operations.

Why flash storage?

Flash storage offers several advantages over traditional spinning disk media. Though still slightly more expensive on a dollar-per-gigabyte basis, flash storage enables radically faster data processing operations. An all-flash array can store multi-terabyte databases "in-memory" and deliver a read/write speed that is 4 times greater than HDDs. Flash storage is more dense than HDDs. It also tends to be less prone to failure, given its lack of moving parts.

HPE flash storage products and services

HPE offers a selection of high-performing flash storage solutions. They offer 99.9999% uptime and built-in protection and affordability for any application. Predictive all-flash storage from HPE is smart enough to eliminate issues before you even know they’re there and operate with industry leading economics, including cloud-like options, for only pennies per usable gigabyte per month.